Cake start-ups increase 54% in 2011

14 November, 2011

Bakery start-up businesses are up 54%, according to the findings of a new report by insurance broker Simply Business.

The report puts the rise down to the increasing popularity of programmes such as The Great British Bake Off, with the company seeing a 54% increase in insurance quote requests from cake-making start-ups this year, and since 2009 requests have rise a staggering 325%.

Simply Business said that cake baking was now the 18th most popular start-up business idea in Britain, up from 27th last year.

The percentages translate to 2,319 quote requests from new cake making businesses this year, compared to 1,459 this time last year, and only 370 in 2009.

Among those requests 91% were from women, however there was a 1% increase in interest from men up from 8% to 9% this year.

The majority of the start-ups that Simply Business has dealt with have been set up by people in their 20s and 30s. Forty-two per cent were between the ages of 25 and 34, with 32% between 35 and 44 years-old.

Bolton has seen the biggest increase in people starting up cake making businesses, up 2000% since last year, while Huddersfield was named top of the cake making hotspots (% of start-ups that are cake makers), with 3.39%. Wakefield came in second at 3.34%, and Doncaster third with 2.97%. The fastest rising cake cities (% increase in start-up cake makers), were all found in the northern regions of England and Scotland, including Durham, Blackpool and Perth.

Jason Stockwood, chief executive offer, Simply Business, said: “As Simply Business quotes thousands of businesses every week, we can quickly spot start-up trends and see which are increasing or decreasing in popularity.

“With a resurgence in home baking due to shows such as the Great British Bake Off, it was only a matter of time before we saw this impact the start-up business market.”